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Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

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Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#71

Post by jashmenn »

I just started a new site for teaching this!

I've found that smart contracts have a lot of jargon that can be opaque, but the concepts are familiar to web developers (and not that hard to learn).

For example, in traditional webdev we use our browser to connect to an app server, which is connected to a centralized database.

In Ethereum dev, every node has a copy of the entire database. To write distributed apps, you read from your local copy. That is, for a JavaScript DApp, you use the web3 JavaScript library to connect to a local node you have running on your own machine.

Writes are little more involved, because you need the network to agree that your writes are valid. So to perform writes, you submit a transaction to the network.

The result is reads are free and writes cost money.

Solidity is tricky, but not that bad if you're careful. If you know JavaScript already, you can totally learn to program smart contracts.

In any case, my site is here. I'll be making the first course free shortly: https://www.newline.co/

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#72

Post by harrisreynolds »

We recently launched a site to help people go from zero to hero with Blockchain technology. Feel free to sign up for the weekly newsletter here:

http://www.theblockchainhq.com/newsletter/

We plan on covering "Getting started with Blockchain development" very soon as there it still an opportunity here to make this much easier.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#73

Post by zodiac »

throwaway613834 wrote: post #46
acoravos wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a piece demystifying what a blockchain can be used for (vs. not) with intro references: https://blog.andreacoravos.com/myth-busting-can-a-blockchain... . It's written using healthcare use-cases as frame of reference, but applies to most industry implementations.

So (as I said in a sibling comment) my question wasn't "what can it be used for", but rather "what concepts are there to learn about it that could help me decide what to use it for". But regarding the topic of what it can be used for... yes, I see people talking about doing healthcare with blockchain, or BP using blockchain, or archeology using blockchain, and people asking about how to learn to use blockchain for th…

You should ask the people doing healthcare with blockchain, or whatever it is you're confused about. I agree, oftentimes they just have no idea what they're talking about. Sometimes they do though. It's worth noting that I think a few of them expect to depend on not-yet-completely-implemented "infrastructure" projects (off-chain computation, off-chain storage, prediction markets, private transactions, cheaper transactions). However since these infrastructure projects are still in a research stage I don't think it's reasonable for you to be able to cleanly split the "conceptual user perspective" from the "bitcoin-dev perspective".

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#74

Post by hdhzy »

Contracts page on Bitcoin Wiki [0] is classic, unfortunately to understand most of it one has to know how script and various extensions (lock time etc.) work. Generally I'd advise reverse engineering how Bitcoin works, something like this [1] in JavaScript. There is also high level description of some contract types [2] but it's basically the same content as on Bitcoin Wiki.

[0]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contract

[1]: https://curiosity-driven.org/low-level-bitcoin

[2]: https://curiosity-driven.org/bitcoin-contracts

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#75

Post by kevmo »

djb_hackernews wrote: post #52
aerovistae wrote: post #20

The book "Mastering Bitcoin" really helped me to understand the blockchain and bitcoin properly. It's available free online here~ http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001802/index.ht... The author is putting out a similar book called "Mastering Ethereum" in February, also through O'Reilly.

I just read the preface and have to ask... is this heavy on marketing, cheerleading and kool-aid? First the author makes it sound like the Nakamoto paper was sent from the heavens and then this: > I became obsessed and enthralled, spending 12 or more hours each day glued to a screen, reading, writing, coding, and learning as much as I could. I emerged from this state of fugue, more than 20 pounds lighter from lack of…

That's what prefaces often sound like. It's the author introducing themself and their claim to authority that will make you take their following content seriously. This author is just explaining why they cared so much as to write a book.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#76

Post by andrewfromx »

MoBattah wrote: post #48
andrewfromx wrote: post #43

shameless plug, but walk thru this example: https://simplecoin.life/ico

Does this end after /ico12?

yeah, it's not finished. Working on https://github.com/andrewarrow/simplecoin.life code and then I'll fix the rest of the site

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#77

Post by agreen »

Intro:

1. https://medium.freecodecamp.org/explain-bitcoin-like-im-five...

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIxwTx7o_B4

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBC-nXj3Ng4

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_160oMzblY8

5. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/244-the-quiet-master-of-...

6. http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpower/

Build Your Own Blockchain:

1. https://dev.to/aunyks/lets-build-the-tiniest-blockchain

2. https://hackernoon.com/learn-blockchains-by-building-one-117...

3. https://github.com/jamesob/tinychain

Resource List for an Advanced Understanding (Multidisciplinary Approach):

1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UiMS4Br7LkTIRdEOPjCukOxG...

---

Additionally, here is some advice from Balaji Srinivasan (source: https://www.producthunt.com/live/balaji-s-srinivasan):

1. First, I'd master database and cryptography fundamentals, with something like Dan Boneh's course for the latter

2. Then, I'd read the Bitcoin.org and Ethereum documentation

3. Then, you should write short Python or Go scripts to do things like printing out the blockchain, formatting and signing a transaction by hand, managing private keys, that type of thing. This will give you a feel for the raw data structures.

4. After doing all this, I'd take a look at application libraries like Ryan Shea and Muneeb Ali's new blockstack.org

The reason I'd do it in this order is that you would learn fundamentals first before proceeding to the cutting edge.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#79

Post by Asdfbla »

vjdhama wrote: post #30

There's this course by the people who wrote `Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies` It covers the basics pretty well. http://bitcoinbook.cs.princeton.edu/

I can second this. It's a book written by capable people who do some research in the area too and they don't unecessarily hype the technology like so many resources you find about cryptocurrencies.

Re: Ask HN: Resources to learn blockchain and smart contracts?

#80

Post by coolandsmartrr »

pors wrote: post #78

I agree with the recommendation of "Mastering Bitcoin". I recently also started diving into blockchain related tech, and I blog about it here: http://decentralized.blog/ So far mostly about IPFS, but soon more on the working of the different blockchains out there.

Thanks for your dissection of IPFS, really useful to understand! Looking forward to more
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